Hey!
I'm Shashank Rao — welcome to my digital garden 🌱
About Me
I'm a Year 3 Undergraduate molecular genetics student at King's College London, presently working as a Computational Biology Placement Student at GSK. I'm passionate about biology, programming, and bits of social contract theory.
I love combining disciplines, whether it's using code to explore genetics or using philosophy to understand emergence.
Outside the lab and code editor, I play the guitar, write fantasy stories, and occasionally attempt to draw things that don't look awful. I hope you enjoy exploring my projects, and ideas!
Work Experience
BSRA
(8 weeks)
Summer Intern
2nd Jun - 27th Jul 2025
As part of the BSRA Summer Studentship Grant I was awarded, I undertook a research project under Professor Anna Murray (Professor of Human Genetics and Director of Research and Impact) at the University of Exeter to look at the effects of menopausal symptoms on postmenopausal health using Mendelian Randomisation and the UKBioBank Database... Read More (Blog)
University of Exeter
(6 weeks)
Summer Intern
21st Jul - 31st Aug 2024
Summer intern in a GWAS-focused lab, working on bioinformatics tools and variant data visualisation.
Rudgwick
Medical Centre
(~8 weeks)
Summer Intern
13th Jun - 20th Jul 2024
01st Sep - 16th Sep 2024
I worked on finetuning the WhisperAI model by OpenAI towards transcribing consultations, exploring the cutting edge of AI finetuning at the height of the AI boom, while simultaneously working towards a product with real societal impact.
Personal Projects
Tsuki
A free, open-source, minimalist task & knowledge management app focussed at visualising task dependencies intuitively
Download
GWASExplorer.com
A free, open-source, no-code browser-based GWAS summary statistics visualiser designed to adapt to your data's format.
⚠️ Not affiliated with the GWAS Explorer by the NCI
Go to GWASExplorer.com
Think Pythonically: Learn Python the better way
A beginner’s guide that teaches you not just the syntax, but how to think like the Python interpreter. I detail the untaught rules of pythonic thinking – the things I learnt the hard way.
Don’t just write Python, Understand it.
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Ideate2D: Make games in Python — visually and intuitively.
Ideate2D is a WYSIWYG 2D game engine built on PyGame. By utilising an intuitive drag-and-drop scene editor, and generating python code that has been designed for customisation, Ideate2D provides the perfect blend of accessibility without sacrificing flexibility.
Download
Theory Zero
A work-in-progress free novelette weaving together biology, history, and social contract theory to rationalise societal behaviours in a single, elegant framework
Formerly 'Into the Mind' (working title)
Read
Chirp
AI Interface that overlays onto screen seamlessly, appearing and disappearing as you need it
Uses local LLMs with Ollama, ensuring privacy and convenience
Download
Want to Collaborate?
If you're into weird interdisciplinary ideas, or just want to say hi, get in touch — or check out my GitHub!